Precambrian Worm
The Precambrian Worms are a species of giant, fog-dwelling, carnivorous worm from the Precambrian. Facts Precambrian Worms have features of the priapulid predator worm Ottoia prolifica, i.e. an extensible proboscis with teeth, but much bigger than any known Ottia. Their body looks rather like a sea cucumber. In the Cambrian, priapulid worms grew to much bigger sizes than in the present (though there is no evidence that they grew to the size of the Precambrian Worms) and were one of the dominant predators. The Worms originate from the Precambrian, and therefore can only breathe in the sulphuric gases of their environment's atmosphere. The Worms are blind but apparently have a good sense of smell, touch and possibly hearing, and are carnivorous. Their spit is also a black tar like substance which might help locate prey though this is not proven, and they have rows of sharp teeth on their tongues. Precambrian Worms can't survive in an oxygenated atmosphere for more than a matter of moments, and they explode when they come into contact with a mix of oxygen and heat. Their young live inside their bodies and may be parasites, as after their parents died and released them, they each made a fleeting attempt to burrow into a new host's skin. In Primeval Episode 2.2 A large number of Precambrian Worms came through an Anomaly into an Inner City Office Block in present day London when the Precambrian atmosphere poured through the Anomaly and made the building habitable to the Worms. One Worm attacked and killed a janitor when he found the Anomaly, and Armstrong was later killed by the Worms as well when he and Cooper found the Anomaly too. The skyscraper was evacuated due to the staff mistaking the Precambrian fog for smoke from a fire, but in one glass-walled meeting room a group of executives refused to leave. Terry, the man leading the company, eventually left the meeting room to investigate the fog, and was attacked and killed by the Worms. .]] Later, Nick Cutter and Stephen Hart arrived at the skyscraper's cafeteria, and they and Cooper were attacked by a Worm which Cutter killed with a fire axe. Cutter and Stephen, along with Cooper, escaped the cafeteria, pursued by another Worm. The Worm seized Cooper by her ankle, but Cutter and Stephen jammed the cafeteria door on the Worm's proboscis. Separated from the fog, the Worm quickly died. Shortly after, Cutter and Stephen were separated when two Precambrian Worms attacked them from in a lift, and Stephen narrowly escapes into a lift shaft by distracting the nearby Worms with his wristwatch's alarm. Stephen later came into an office, where he was forced to hide from the Worms there atop the desks and tables. When he fell from a desk into the fog, the Worms began attacking Stephen, but he was able to kill each of the attacking Worms by various means. Meanwhile, Jenny Lewis arrived at the skyscraper, and was attacked by a Worm which Cutter decapitated with a katana. Moments later, another Worm caught Cutter off-guard and tried to eat into his leg before Jenny decapitated the Worm with the katana. Later, the two remaining executives remained in the meeting room, which the fog was quickly seeping into. Eventually, a Worm opened the meeting room's door, but one of the executives fended it off by beating it with a laptop. The team then found the executives and tried to evacuate the building with them, using leaf blowers to hold back the fog. While the team was leaving the building, Connor was attacked by a Worm in the stairway which swallowed him by the head in the stairwell. Cutter then saved Connor by cutting the Worm in half with the katana that he and Jenny had wielded. When the team realised that the Worms, being Precambrian lifeforms, are more used to a sulphuric atmosphere and therefore cannot survive long outside the fog, Connor and Abby used the ventilation shafts to reach the server room and turn up the temperature to force the fog out of the building. The two succeeded (along the way, Abby was ambushed by a Worm, but easily dispatched it with several well-placed kicks and karate chops). However, the heat also caused the Precambrian Worms to explode, releasing their parasitic young. Cutter then set off the building's fire sprinklers with a lighter, bringing the temperature back down and killing the Worms' spawn. Episode 5.5 When Convergence started in 2011, the Precambrian fog poured through an Anomaly into an Infant School classroom, allowing Precambrian Worms to come through and roam the classroom. Abby and Hilary Becker were called in to deal with the creatures. The duo were successfully able to quarantine the Worms, though the creatures' ultimate fate is unknown. Trivia *The Precambrian Worms come from farther back in time than any other creatures the team have encountered. *The Worms are the first and only creatures to be killed by Jenny Lewis. *It has been speculated that the real life prehistoric worm Ottoia is the young of the Precambrian Worms in the Primeverse. But this is unlikely as Ottoia was an aquatic lifeform, while the Worms appear to be lifeforms that live on land. Category:Creatures Category:Series 2 Creatures Category:Series 5 Creatures Category:Recurring creatures Category:Promotional Creatures Category:Fictional Creatures Category:Prehistoric creatures Category:Invertebrates Category:Creatures in the 2011 Convergence Category:Creatures that cause deaths